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Colin Judge: Testing structural materials in Idaho’s newest hot cell facility
Idaho National Laboratory’s newest facility—the Sample Preparation Laboratory (SPL)—sits across the road from the Hot Fuel Examination Facility (HFEF), which started operating in 1975. SPL will host the first new hot cells at INL’s Materials and Fuels Complex (MFC) in 50 years, giving INL researchers and partners new flexibility to test the structural properties of irradiated materials fresh from the Advanced Test Reactor (ATR) or from a partner’s facility.
Materials meant to withstand extreme conditions in fission or fusion power plants must be tested under similar conditions and pushed past their breaking points so performance and limitations can be understood and improved. Once irradiated, materials samples can be cut down to size in SPL and packaged for testing in other facilities at INL or other national laboratories, commercial labs, or universities. But they can also be subjected to extreme thermal or corrosive conditions and mechanical testing right in SPL, explains Colin Judge, who, as INL’s division director for nuclear materials performance, oversees SPL and other facilities at the MFC.
SPL won’t go “hot” until January 2026, but Judge spoke with NN staff writer Susan Gallier about its capabilities as his team was moving instruments into the new facility.
Jae-Hak Kim, Soon-Joon Hong, Goon-Cherl Park, Yong-Soo Kim
Nuclear Technology | Volume 132 | Number 2 | November 2000 | Pages 227-239
Technical Paper | Thermal Hydraulics | doi.org/10.13182/NT00-A3141
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A thermal-hydraulic analysis methodology is established for a pressurized thermal shock (PTS) analysis of the Kori Nuclear Unit-1 (KNU-1) power plant using RETRAN-3D. The effects of the important parameters on PTS are evaluated, such as the initial power level, break size, isolation of the depressurized steam generator (SG), and charging flow runback. As a result, the most dominant factors are revealed as the initial power level and break flow rate. Auxiliary feedwater (AFW) to the depressurized SG should be isolated by operator action as soon as possible to minimize break flow. To mitigate the risk of PTS by reducing both steam flow rate and operator response time of depressurized SG isolation, the installation of check valves to block the cross flow between two steam lines is recommended. An efficient grouping methodology is proposed using these results. Groups should be divided according to the break size, the initial power level, and the AFW isolation to a depressurized SG. Charging flow runback is revealed to have little effect on downcomer overcooling.
